​That afternoon we waited out some heavy rain in our room, I guess we shouldn’t be surprised given that we are on the edge of the Amazon rainforest. The rooves have no gutters, they would probably fall off with the weight of water. Once the rain stopped we started walking towards the Brazilian border as there is a viewing tower nearby, but as we got closer and closer, the streets got dodgier and dodgier. It was also getting darker and darker, then suddenly the heavens opened again. We waited under an awning for a bit and when it got a little lighter, ran to the next awning and hopped from shelter to shelter back towards the hotel. Getting soaked couldn’t be avoided though as the streets quickly turned to muddy rivers and pavements suddenly disappeared under torrents of water. Eventually it slowed to a drizzle and we managed to find a chicken shop for some dinner. We heard that gumboots were “de rigeur” in these parts, well I can now see why.

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​After a quick breakfast we did in fact make it to the ticket office about 6:20 and lucky we did not push it until later as we had to follow the gumboot-clad lady with the clipboard and head down to the muddy river, trek across a dodgy wooden bridge to a small island, then traipse along a muddy and water logged pathway, through a small village to get to the Amazon side of this island. Then it was down another muddy slope and across a precarious gangplank to the floating ferry dock. No OHS here! And just like that, we are standing on a floating dock on the edge of The mighty Amazon! Wow. We are some 2000kms from the mouth of the river in Brazil but it is still about a kilometre wide here and flowing at about 2-3kts.

​Boarding was very orderly and once we were all on board a game of bingo was announced. If your seat number was drawn they refund your ticket! Once we got under way it was raining so the opaque, red side covers had to come down and it was like being in a darkroom. Didn’t see much as a result but we made quite a few stops along the way, some of which were just nosing the boat into a mud bank so someone could jump off the front. We also seemed to give a fuel container to another boat that pulled alongside. The journey took about 2.5 hours with all of the stops and we are going against the flow of the river so it will be quicker on the way back. We arrived at Puerto Nariño about 10am and as there was no one from the hotel waiting for us, Keith negotiated with a local boat to take us to our Refugio, which was about 10 mins further up a side stream.

​Chris and Laura (SV Zephyr, also in Santa Marta) are already here and have done a few local tours. Laura and I were sitting on the seat by the river and a guy (Luis) came up in a boat with some plants in boxes. Laura got chatting to him in Spanish and I picked up a few words, including manatee. Turns out he is caring for an orphaned manatee (named Moache) in the pond at the back of the Refugio. Moache (means “thank you” in the local language of Tikuna). We watch as Luis gets around the pond in a small dugout and places the plants in floating moats. These are the manatee’s favourite food. He also cleans out some of the weed that Moache doesn’t eat. Moache will be released back into the wild in April. He is pretty big already, weighing in at 200lbs! Luis tickles him under the chin from the shore, wow that is a face only a mother could love (I mean Moache’s, not Luis’!) Luis does get some payment for his work but puts in his time to caring for Moache because he loves doing it.

​We are woken very early the next morning with lots of people leaving today - they were up thumping about and talking at the top of their voices. We did get back to sleep after they left though! We had a slow morning pottering around the grounds of our Refugio. The gardens are lovely and lots of native birds, plants and flowers to see. One type of bird, the crested oropendola, builds an elaborate hanging nest, over a meter long, weaving it together with twigs. It must take the weight of their eggs and chicks and be placed out of the reach of tree dwelling animals such as monkeys. There is also a mirador here which gives us a great view into the tree tops and along the river. We drop by to see Moache who comes up to the bank thinking he might be getting fed. He really is quite a big fella!

​Heading back along the river bank we stop to see a big tree with amazing root structure, a bit like the ones in Indian river in Dominica. The boys are full of tall tales about huge Anacondas which appear in the river when the level rises. Finally we stop and fish for piraña. Our fishing rods are pretty basic, a stick with a line tied to it, and a hook with a little meat. I can feel them nibbling but nothing bites. Danny catches a small one and then Keith does too. Hang on, this is really close to where I swam! The teeth are pretty sharp but their mouths are tiny and the boys try to convince me that they are scared of swimmers…

On the way back we see the most amazing rainbow, almost a triple with another one above it. Sunset is beautiful although not as colourful as over the sea.

​Our Refugio is a lovely, peaceful place and after an exciting morning we take some time to chill out by the pool, and spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing in hammocks and watching the sunset.
 
Our final tour before heading back to Santa Marta begins at 8am the next day, with Alvino, who is Danny (our previous guide’s) father. We picked up Damien our translator on the way. It took about 45mins down river to get to Mocagua where we met our local guide. He led us through the village and thick forest, pointing out different plants and trees along the way, to the monkey sanctuary. We pass by a lady doing the laundry in a local stream which makes me thankful for the Bosch front-loader. At the monkey sanctuary we meet an American volunteer who gave us a run down on the place. There are no cages and animals are free to come and go as they please. Food is available for them throughout the day and although the animals do interact with visitors, the park are very insistent they don’t want people posting selfies with monkeys on their heads etc. They basically take in animals that have been kept as pets or orphaned etc and take care of them before releasing them. There are several different kinds of monkeys as well as black tamarins. Animals are released when they reach maturity by taking them to an area known to have tribes of the same species. It’s easier for a new female to be accepted than a male as the males have to compete with the other males and find their place in the hierarchy. We watch the monkeys playing around and I have one jump on me unexpectedly and yelp! Later another climbs onto me but I stay calm and it nicks the top off the insect repellent spray. Cheeky bugger. We could watch them for hours and I take lots of photos. We walk back to the village, have a lovely fish lunch before the long boat trip back to our Refugio.

​It has been an amazing and very interesting time here, seeing so such a vastly different environment to anything else we have seen in the Caribbean. The Amazon River is the life-blood of the communities here, a very unique and special place which we have been very fortunate to visit. We are looking forward to coming home to ITIKI though. It’s Christmas eve tomorrow and the hotel will be closing. There is only one other set of guests left here now and as we have an early start and a long day of travel ahead of us, we settle the bill and have an early night.
 
After an early breakfast we are picked up at 6:30am to get the express boat to Leticia. It is a faster trip back as the tide is with us and not quite so many stops. Once we get off the express boat we find another water taxi which bypasses the muddy trek across the island to get us into the port of Leticia. There we run into our host’s son, Carlos Jnr who is in town doing some Christmas shopping - he hails a tuk-tuk for us to get to the airport. As before the process of flying is so smooth and civilised, despite being Christmas eve, full planes and a busy airport. I guess it helps that not everyone has 6 devices to pull out of their bags at security. We get back to the Marina just before 6pm and we have been invited to SV Voodoo for dinner. Its lovely to have such a friendly welcome home.

​In our first season on ITIKI in 2018 we spent a few days exploring the coastal Spanish town of Cartagena. Now here we are some 4.5 years on and we are visiting its namesake in Columbia. Who woulda thought!?

Cartagena (pronounced KAR-tə-HAY-nə), or Cartagena de Indias, is one of the major ports on the northern coast of Colombia, bordering the Caribbean sea. Historically it provided an important link to the West Indies critical for world exploration and as a stop on the great commercial maritime routes. Cartagena was a key port for the export of Bolivian silver to Spain, for the import of enslaved Africans and for trade between Spain and its overseas empire, establishing its importance by the early 1540s.

We had originally planned to visit Cartagena in ITIKI and spend Christmas here, but given the favourable monthly marina rate at Santa Marta, the friends and fellow cruisers who were staying there as well, combined with the challenges of the anchorage at Cartagena, we decided to stay put and do a road trip instead. We opted for an air-conditioned mini-bus, packed our back-packs again and set off, weaving our way up over the hills behind Santa Marta and down again to the adjacent coastal town of high rise resorts. The road travels along the western coast via a narrow spit of land with the ocean on our right and a huge lagoon and wetlands on the left as we head south. These wetlands are host to numerous shanty towns and the main streets are lined with small shops and local food stalls. The town of Baranquilla, at the entrance to the Magdalena River is our next stop and we crawl through traffic in the backstreets for another drop off before finally getting underway again.

​Arriving in Cartagena about 2:30pm, we decided to walk to the hotel to stretch our legs. I had a timely reminder that we are not in Kansas anymore, Toto. Almost had my phone snatched out of my hand by a guy on a motorbike as I was Google navigating! Fortunately I had a good grip on it!
 
There are many parts to the sprawling city of Cartagena and we base ourselves inside the old, walled part of the town which these days is gentrified, colourful and lively and very European in its style. There are numerous Spanish style plazas and the colonial architecture is well preserved. The streets, many of which are car-free, are lined with colourfully painted homes, shops, restaurants, bars and hotels.

Our Hotel “3 Banderras” on Cala Hobo (!) is an oasis of calm with an internal, leafy courtyard and a rooftop plunge pool. Coincidentally we are three doors down from our friend Shane’s old place. He lived here for 5 years, and has now moved to Panama, where we will eventually catch up - he gave us lots of great tips on where to go and what to see and do. It’s been a long time since we were in such a big, modern city and we spend a lot of time just wandering around, soaking up the vibe, stopping to eat and drink and people watch.

As we often do in a “big” city, we started out visit with a “free walking tour”. These are a great way to get orientated and start to learn a little of the history of the place, from a knowledgeable and passionate local. The walls of the old town run along the western coast facing to the sea, wrap around the south of the town facing the Boca Grande (aka Miami) and the main port which houses the marinas, anchorages, cruise ship and commercial ports. Walls also protect the eastern, inland side of the town. The main entrance to the old town, Clock Tower Square, is where we start our tour. Here we find a Sculpture of Don Pedro de Heredia, Spanish conquistador, explorer, founder of Cartagena de Indias.

We find Plaza Santa Domingo with its voluptuous Bolero sculpture lounging provocatively outside a cathedral. We dropped into the Inquisition Museum, where hundreds lost their lives thanks to dubious allegations of sorcery. Also pass by the former home of the privateer Sir Frances Drake, which is painted a lovely shade of orange. Along the way we sample some local sweets (hmm), fried street food and drink fresh coconut water from the shell whilst watching some clever street artists at work.

​Later in the evening we wandered around looking for dinner and ended up at San Diego square. Throughout dinner we were “treated” to a constant stream of very loud and colourful street performers and buskers who came and went, one after the other. Some of them were actually quite talented but the novelty wore off after the first couple.

Early the next morning we visited the Castle San Felipe de Barajas which lies outside the city walls. We walk along the lagoons and past the impressive statue Monumento India Catalina, the legendary indigenous women who became a translator and intermediary for the Spanish conquerors. Not surprisingly the fort sits up high above the town, its all stone and concrete so it was quite hot. Numerous tunnels run through the fort, which we gladly explore as these are nice and cool. We weave our way to the top for a great view over the city, looking down to the newest part of town, the Boca Grande, with its Miami-esqe skyline, it occupies the peninsula on the western side of the port of Cartagena.

​The bohemian neighbourhood of Getsemani also lies outside city walls and we enjoyed several visits here at different times of the day. It’s a little less touristy than the walled city, definitely not on the cruise ship itinerary, but fairly lively with lots of street art, galleries and colourful decorations in the car free streets. We find one street decorated with umbrellas hanging and another with flags of all nations. At every turn in the narrow streets and laneways we see colourful street art and murals decorating the walls. Our favourite street art was a painting of the famous Columbian author, Gabriel Garcia Marquez sitting at a table, with the yellow butterflies of his famous character from "100 Years of Solitude", Mauricio Bibliano circling overhead. A small seat strategically placed allows you to join Marquez at the table for a chat.

The central square of Getsemani, Plaza de la Trinidad, hosts a church and small square surrounded by bars and street vendors. Ladies dressed up in red, yellow and blue costumes (Columbian national colours) will pose for photos with bowls of fruit on their heads, looking very Carmen Miranda. In between gigs they sit around looking bored, chatting with each other or staring at their phones. I liked those photos better! Of an evening the plaza is buzzing with people out and about, checking out the Christmas decorations around the church. We brave some street food of arepas (a kind of mini burrito) and enjoy watching families and friends socialising until quite late. The Spanish culture of “siesta” has been adopted here so it’s common to see young children out and about quite late with their families, having had a sleep in the middle of the day. As much as we try to fit in, even after an afternoon nap, we still struggle to stay up past 10pm!

​Parque Centenario, just outside the main entrance to the walled city, was another spot we visited several times. Its huge, leafy trees offer welcome shade and unexpectedly it also houses some interesting wildlife. On our first visit here we spotted a huge iguana and also a cotton-top tamarin (a kind of small monkey). Someone was feeding him a banana and we stopped to watch. He gave some to Keith to feed to the tamarin! as well - magic. He is a little timid (the tamarin that is) but bold enough to come down, grab the banana and run back up to a higher branch to eat it. The next time we drop through we manage to find a sloth. A small walking tour group had spotted it and we heard from the guide that this was a female sloth who had recently lost a baby. I guess that means there is a male sloth around here somewhere too. Somehow, slowly, they have found each other. She was not only awake, she was actually feeding on leaves, munching and moving very slowly. How amazing to see this in the centre of such a big city.

​Well it is Christmas time (Feliz Navidad!) and it seems the Columbians love big, gaudy, colourful decorations. If we thought Santa Marta was pretty amazing, the Christmas decorations in Cartagena are really over the top. Inside the city walls one plaza is completely overtaken by a replica of Bethlehem, and biblical scenes but with a decidedly winter theme, with snow, skiers and ice skaters as well as and gingerbread men featuring – just over the top! Just outside the city walls by the port area there are giant Christmas trees and a enormous Barbie doll (Frozen?!). Its selfie heaven! Meanwhile in Getsemani, Santa Claus seems to regularly sneak in to the manger scene as the 4th “wise man”..

​On our last day in Cartagena before heading back to Santa Marta, we walked along the ocean shoreline to Boca Grande, which is the Miami of Cartagena. Went to a multi-storied, air conditioned shopping mall that could have been anywhere in the world, but it was a strange novelty to be in such a place after so much time in relatively primitive places. Had coffee at Juan Valdez, which is Columbia’s answer to Starbucks, but with good coffee (according to Keith). It wasn’t long before we found ourselves gravitating back to the Getsemani neighbourhood for lunch and a final visit to this funky neighbourhood.

As the city cools down in the afternoon the people come out again and so do the street vendors, selling souvenirs, hats, food, clothes and even aphrodisiacs made from bee pollen! A favourite activity in Cartagena is to take an evening stroll along the town walls and bastions facing the sea, and watch the sunset, and we do this each evening. Here we  find the famous Café del Mar, with its long queue of wannabes waiting to get in and buy expensive cocktails. We much preferred to buy a $1 Corona from the local vendors and find a spot on the wall to watch the sun set over the water. A lovely way to end a day of sightseeing and to say our fond farewells to this vibrant city!

​The tiny village of Minca is a popular side trip from Santa Marta. Its only 40mins by mini bus and gives a taste of the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas de Santa Marta. We pack a couple of small bags and set off to find the bus station, which is in a very busy part of town right near the public markets. Once the bus is full of people, and fully laden it departs - promisingly there is a huge sack of limes on the roof of our vehicle, destined for Mojitos no doubt. The bus trip takes us through the outskirts of Santa Marta, crawling through traffic before we start heading up into the hills. Our AirBnB host Luis meets us at the bus stop and drives us to our accommodation over a pretty rough, narrow and steep road. Accommodation is basic, no hot water in the showers here, actually there is not even a shower head, but we do have towel swans on the beds! It’s a 10 minute walk down to the “CBD” of Minca (ie one street with some lovely bars, restaurants and cafes) a fairly steep footpath to a small but rapidly flowing river which we need to cross via simple, 4-bamboo pole bridge. Don’t look down, don’t look down – phew made it! We become very practiced at this! The small town is a great place to chill out, not much going on at all, which is super nice after the bustle of Santa Marta.

​The next day it’s another walk in the opposite direction, this time to a place called the Pozo Azul. This one is a little closer and as it is accessible by car so it’s popular and very busy. Not as nicely landscaped or maintained though. We paddle up to our ankles knowing how cold the water is and spend some time sitting on the rocks, people watching before walking back for a late lunch in town and an afternoon rest. We head out for cocktails before dinner (with some fresh limes of course!) and found a great steak restaurant for dinner. We are long overdue for a decent steak and Colombia does meat really well! We enjoy our meal under the watchful eyes of a couple of the local dogs, who will no doubt get the leftovers out the back later on.

​On our final morning we had an early start to do a bird watching tour. They gave us some really good binoculars and I had my camera so I was fully laden. It was about a 4km walk each way up into the hills, and we did see quite a few birds. Keith saw a Toucan in a tree and I saw it later flying. Still haven’t seen one up close though. We ended up at a banana farm that has quite a few bird feeders so got to see a few more species up close, including some hummingbirds. It was a lovely walk up in the hills and we could look down onto the coast and see Santa Marta at sunrise in the distance. All too soon it was time to leave and our host dropped us back at the bus stop for the return trip to the relative chaos of Santa Marta, and of course to ITIKI. We are feeling suitably relaxed and ready for our next side trip, to Cartagena.